The job of recommending and selecting seminar topics each year falls to an advisory committee made up of a broad cross-section of dairy producers along with agribusiness representatives and Extension personnel. "The committee is pretty diverse and really covers all the different aspects of the dairy industry," says Peg Reedy, a University of Wisconsin-Extension agricultural agent who has served on the committee for five years.

The 12-person committee meets once a year, usually in January, to discuss and vote on potential topics and recommend speakers. Many of the suggestions for topics originate during conversations committee members have with dairy producers and other knowledgeable industry sources during the course of the year.

"I’m always keeping the program in mind when I’m talking to producer customers and fellow staff at our company," says Randy Greenfield, a dairy specialist with Wisconsin-based Vita-Plus. "By the time the meeting rolls around, I usually have a pretty long list of things dairy producers would like to hear more about in the seminars."

Narrowing down the list of seminar topics to eight each year is the toughest challenge for many committee members. "Every year, when it’s time to vote, I find myself thinking that just about every topic that’s brought up in the meeting would make for a good seminar," Reedy says. "Usually it comes down to deciding what topics are going to appeal to the broadest possible audience. There are some traditional topic areas such as nutrition, breeding and genetics, calf-rearing and dry cow management that always seem to find their way on to the list. But we also try to work in topics that are new and trending. Examples from recent years would include employee management and using social media."

Attendees can learn new production ideas from fellow dairy producers during the Virtual Farm Tours held during Expo.

CEU’s Offered To Seminar Attendees

The American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS) and the American Association of Veterinary State Boards’ Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) offer continuing education units to members who attend the World Dairy Expo seminars.